Miyamoto, Takahashi and Takeda on Switch’s third-party support, ease of porting, more

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Miyamoto, Takahashi and Takeda on Switch’s third-party support, ease of porting, more

Nintendo has just published a translated transcript of the Q&A session at their latest Corporate Management Policy Briefing.

The following question is about Nintendo’s third party relations regarding the Switch, how Nintendo’s own internal development teams are handling it and Nintendo partnering up with NVIDIA. The question was answered by Shinya Takashi (Director, Managing Executive Officer, General Manager of Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning and Development Division), Shigeru Miyamoto (Director, Creative Fellow) and Genyo Takeda (Director, Technology Fellow).

Q: I believe that inadequate third-party support for the platform (and the lack of compatible software as a result) was the big issue for Wii U. Mr. Takeda just mentioned that Nintendo Switch is a high-performance system. From that viewpoint, I would like to know how third-party publishers are viewing Nintendo Switch. Also, how are Nintendoʼs internal developers appreciating Nintendo Switch and what kind of development direction are they taking in creating software for it? Also, what has technically been done for the system in order to realize the high performance of GeForce while managing the power consumption?

A: Takahashi:

For our previous game platforms, creating our own development tools was a high priority for us. However, since the start of Nintendo Switch development we have been aiming to realize an environment in which a variety of different third-party developers are able to easily develop compatible software, such as by making it compatible with Unreal and Unity as well as our own development tools. As a result, even companies with only a few developers have already started making games for Nintendo Switch. The development of Snipperclips ‐ Cut it out, together! started with one such small team. Since last year, we have introduced Nintendo Switch to a variety of different development companies by demonstrating software such as 1-2-Switch. At each demonstration, everyone was interested in the new play styles. During our recent (January 13) Nintendo Switch presentation, we played a video message from the creator of Skyrim, Mr. Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios, in which he shared the genuine impression he had already given us when we first showed him Nintendo Switch. Nintendo will keep on creating unique software. By doing so, I believe we will encourage third-party developers to create a number of quality software titles for Nintendo Switch.

Head past the break for Miyamoto’s and Takeda’s answer to this question!

Miyamoto:

Regarding our software development environment, we have taken the software development teams for home console systems and for handheld systems, which used to be two different departments, and integrated them into one, and this has been very beneficial as they are now developing software as a team in the same environment. In addition, third-party developers who are making software for PC can now easily adapt that software to work on our platform. In the current development environment, Iʼd say that it would take less than a year for them to port a PC game to Nintendo Switch. That ease of software development has also been felt by Nintendoʼs internal developers. Also, even though game software developers in the U.S. and E.U. are often said to have superior skills to their Japanese counterparts when it comes to software development techniques, Nintendoʼs software developers have mastered state-of-the-art technologies such as Unreal engine, and their skills can now be compared with those of Western developers. Our developers are more excited than ever to create software.

Takeda:

I have to refrain from disclosing any technological details, but we believe there are always technologies that are most appropriate to the time, and we have been very flexible when making technological selections. When NVIDIA was established in Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s, we were developing Nintendo 64 with Silicon Graphics, and we have respected each other as good rivals. This time, in order to develop Nintendo Switch with high performance in spite of its low power consumption, I feel it was key that the two companies could work together as partners while also fully displaying our individual craftsmanship.